2 plead guilty to Medicare fraud from Mebane facility

Managers of a Mebane mental health facility pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of Medicaid fraud, billing the state for services never provided.

Evelyn Fuller, 61, of Mebane, and Michael McLean, 56, of McLeansville, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit health care fraud and felony health care fraud during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Greensboro, according to a release from the office of Ripley Rand, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Fuller operated Harvest House Community Development Corp. Inc., with group home facilities on Cedar Lane and Falcon Lane in Mebane, providing a group home for teens and mental health services to Medicaid clients. McLean was a manager for the corporation. According to documents filed with the N.C. Secretary of State’s office, Harvest House is a nonprofit entity and was incorporated in June 2003, with its principal office at 462 McPherson Drive, Mebane.

Fuller and McLean pleaded guilty to charges that they submitted or aided and abetted the submission of claims to the N.C. Medicaid program between June 2007 and Nov. 2008 for mental services that were never provided. The claims’ total came to about $400,000, the release said.

McLean and Fuller “paid cash to some Medicaid recipients in order to obtain access to the recipient’s [sic] Medicaid numbers. The numbers are required for billing Medicaid and were used in the fraudulent billing scheme,” the release said.

Their sentencing hearings are scheduled for June 13. They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The plea agreements require Fuller and McLean repay the Medicaid program.

The case was investigated by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Medicaid Investigations Division of the N.C. Attorney General’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Hamilton and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney/Assistant Attorney General Jacqueline Perez are prosecuting the case.

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